Early in the morning last July 1, Lyman "Sandy"
Sanborn
and his wife, Grace, were jolted out of bed by the loud banging of the
Placer County Sheriff Department's Special Operations Unit.

When Sanborn opened the front door of his Roseville
residence,
he was literally knocked backwards. A group of deputies charged into
his
home, brandished guns and yelled out "warrant search." Sanborn's
76-year-old
wife sat terrified on the couch in the family's living room as police
placed
handcuffs on her 78-year-old husband, her grown son and her grown
granddaughter.

"Where is it?" the deputies kept yelling. For the
next
two hours, they rifled through belongings in a search for an illegal
indoor
pot garden. But there was no pot garden. The Sanborns were the victims
of a mistaken drug raid.

The next day, Placer County Sheriff Edward Bonner
personally
apologized to the elder Sanborn, a childhood acquaintance of former
President
Ronald Reagan and a lifelong Republican Party activist. But the Sheriff
couldn't explain why one of his deputies had sworn in an affidavit to
have
found "fresh, green" marijuana stems in the Sanborn's trash when it was
left out for collection a week earlier.

To Sandy Sanborn, the police seemed to have it out
for
him. "[Placer County] Sheriff's Deputy Ron Goodpaster maliciously and
intentionally
lied under oath in order to get the judge to issue a search warrant to
look for marijuana at my house," he wrote in a claim filed with Placer
County in November. In a second claim filed Dec. 30, the Sanborn family
asked for $1 million to compensate family members who allegedly
"suffered
physical, mental and emotional injuries as a direct and proximate
result
of the officers' actions."

The Sanborn raid is not an isolated incident. A
six-month
SN&R investigation of more than 70 drug cases has
revealed that Sheriff
Bonner's Special Operations Unit finds itself caught in the crossfire
of
an emerging legal battle. At the heart of the controversy is Goodpaster
and fellow Placer County Sheriff's Deputy Tracy Grant, two veteran
detectives who have participated in hundreds of drug cases over the
years with the exception of over the counter drugs that lead to
lawsuits (such as the yasmin
lawsuit)." In multiple
claims and lawsuits
filed in recent months, both police officers have been
accused of committing perjury and violating the civil rights of
individuals
living in Placer and Sacramento counties. In interviews and court
records,
the two detectives were accused of lying about the existence of
marijuana
they claim to have seized from trash cans as evidence and making false
claims about residents' electrical power usage. In two instances, Grant
said under oath that he observed cars parked in driveways. But
SN&R's
investigation revealed that the cars were not there at the time Grant
said
he saw them. The two policemen's statements on affidavits about trash
searches,
power records and vehicles are significant because they established the
probable cause that was used to obtain search warrants and convictions
in more than 70 marijuana cases in the last three years.

"I'm the lowly detective here, and you need to talk
to
[Placer County Sheriff's Department spokesman] Lt. Dan Hall," said
Grant,
when asked about the allegations concerning his marijuana raids.
Goodpaster
could not be reached for comment. Both deputies recently denied doing
anything
illegal or improper in court papers pertaining to one of their cases.
Lt.
Hall declined to discuss his agency's controversial drug raids and said
he couldn't allow Goodpaster or Grant to be interviewed by the SN&R
because of "ongoing litigation." Hall referred all questions to Sheriff
Bonner, who declined to comment.

The Placer unit's activities included more than 30
raids
within the last two years on homes throughout the city and county of
Sacramento
in a wide-ranging drug sting
that targeted marijuana gardens grown hydroponically
within residential homes. But it's not clear why Placer's drug team was
aggressively targeting so many residences within the jurisdiction
of the
city and county of Sacramento.

"I don't know anything about that," said Larry
Saunders,
tactical commander of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department's
Narcotics/Gang
Bureau. But Saunders said it's typical for a neighboring county's law
enforcement
agency to obtain search warrants and carry out drug raids within
Sacramento
if the neighboring county's detectives receive the tip that suspected
drug
activity is occurring.

The Green Fire connection

Numerous defendants arrested by Placer County's
special
drug unit told the SN&R they believe they were targeted because
they
shopped at Green Fire, a Sacramento gardening supply store that
specializes
in hydroponics and organics. In at least 14 of the raids, Placer
detectives
confiscated as evidence Green Fire catalogs and Green Fire store
receipts
found at the homes of defendants, court records show.

As with the Sanborns, the Place's Special Operations
Unit
came up short on three other residential raids. Detectives found less
than
an ounce of marijuana in two of the cases, a misdemeanor, but no pot
gardens.
The defendants in all three cases were hydroponic enthusiasts who said
they shopped at Green Fire. Sanborn's mistaken raid had a link to Green
Fire, too. Just weeks before Placer deputies were pounding on the door
of the elderly Roseville couple, their son had shopped in the store at
3230 Auburn Blvd.

"We have a store that tries to help people that
garden,"
said a distressed Jeanne Shelsky, Green Fire's owner. "We have no
involvement
in anything illegal, and we are appalled at the thought that law
enforcement
would target anyone just because they came to a garden store."

The SN&R's investigation found no evidence that
Green
Fire knew of Placer's drug sting.

Most of the defendants arrested in the Placer raids
have
been convicted or pleaded guilty in plea bargain arrangements. But the
Placer sting also caught in its net at least seven medical marijuana
patients
who had received recommendations from physicians for use of cannabis
under
the provisions of the state's Proposition 215. Those patients had all
purchased
their growing supplies from Green Fire, too. With an ongoing legal
battle
regarding how many plants are acceptable under Prop. 215, Placer's
Marijuana
Eradication Team still arrested pot patients, charging them with
illegal
possession of marijuana and felony cultivation for sales.

"Just the fact that people shop in a hydroponics
store
doesn't mean what they're buying is something for an illegal purpose,"
said Kate Wells, a Santa Cruz attorney who is considering more
litigation
against Placer on behalf of the Sanborns and others. "It's like saying
because some people shoplift, that you're automatically presumed guilty
that when you walk into a store."

The targeting of hydroponic stores and their
customers
became a popular strategy of narcotics agents in the 1990s after pot
growers
turned to hydroponics, and illegal cultivation moved behind the closed
doors of residences. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency
launched a campaign to go after such stores through Operation Green
Merchant.
In Washington state, the drug-fighting agency managed to put a number
of
such stores out of business and ended up coercing the owner of one
store
to become an informant, according to Jeff Steinborn, a Seattle attorney
who serves on the legal committee of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

"If you're a hunter looking for your prey, the best
place
to find it is at a watering hole, and that's what these stores are-the
watering hole," said Steinborn. "The problem is for every person who
goes
there to buy stuff to grow pot, there are 10 people who go there to buy
legitimate equipment to grow legitimate plants such as orchids,
bromeliads
and tomatoes. Those same people get followed home. When they follow you
home, they sneak around your yard in the dead of night trying to get a
whiff. Every now and then they kick down the wrong door."

How Placer County targeted the customers of Green
Fire
as part of its marijuana raids has been a well-kept secret. Tracy Grant
refused to disclose that information to the physician of two of the
medical
marijuana patients raided and arrested by Grant's drug team. When
Eugene
Schoenfeld, the Sausalito physician, asked Grant in a tape-recorded
phone
conversation how he had learned that two of Schoenfeld's patients were
allegedly cultivating marijuana at their residence, the detective
refused
to say.

"Some of that I can't share with you," said Grant,
according
to a transcript of the conversation in a police report obtained by the
SN&R. "That's part of my investigation."

Green Fire is not mentioned in any of the two
deputies'
affidavits. While the affidavits use marijuana found in trash at
residences
and electrical power records to establish the probable cause needed to
obtain warrants, the documents do not disclose the reason suspected
marijuana
growers are initially targeted by Placer police. That's precisely what
some criminal defense attorneys find puzzling.

"There has to be some triggering information [in the
warrant]
pointing to a specific residence or individual, saying these people
have
committed a crime or they're suspected of committing a crime," said Joe
Farina, a Sacramento attorney who has represented some of the medical
marijuana
patients arrested by Grant. "In most cases I've seen, the triggering
information
is there because that's what's going to lead to the rest of the
investigation.
Typically, drug case search warrants have a CI [confidential informant]
or CRI [confidential reliable informant] in the beginning as probable
cause."

The dentist and the doctor

By the summer of 1998, Placer County's special
narcotics
team had launched their raids on residences throughout Placer and
Sacramento
counties. On Sept. 23, Grant's unit drove down Moss Lane in an affluent
area of Granite Bay and raided the home of Michael Baldwin, a Rocklin
dentist,
and his wife, Georgia Chacko. Baldwin and his wife, both age 35 at the
time, had recommendations for the use of medical marijuana from Dr.
Alex
Stalcup, a prominent Concord physician who was considered one of the
state's
leading authorities on illegal drugs. In fact, Stalcup regularly taught
classes on the subject to narcotics agents in an arrangement with the
California
Narcotics Officers Association.

The Placer County Sheriff's Department immediately
issued
a press release that said Baldwin and his wife were being charged with
cultivation and sales of marijuana based on the seizure of 146 plants
at
the Baldwin home by Grant's unit, which considered 146 plants a level
too
high for the needs of a medical marijuana patient. Baldwin disagreed,
pointing
out that many of his "plants" were small seedlings. Baldwin and his
wife
had grown their pot garden with the use of equipment they had purchased
from Green Fire.

As Michael Baldwin prepared for his defense, the
Rocklin
dentist began doing his own research into the activities of Placer's
drug
unit. He was joined by some of the other medical marijuana patients
raided
by Grant and Goodpaster's unit. The pot patients began to comb through
court files and examine affidavits for search warrants written by the
two
deputies. They noticed that virtually every single search warrant
authorizing
raids on residents in Sacramento County were approved by the same
person-Sacramento
County Superior Court Judge Gary Ransom.

And there was something odd about the wording on all
of
the warrants the two deputies wrote. Nearly every search warrant used
the
exact wording to describe marijuana confiscated during the detectives'
trash searches. "The marijuana was fresh, green and still moist and had
been recently cut from a mature marijuana plant." To Baldwin's group,
it
looked as if the detectives had simply cut and pasted the phrase into
nearly
every search warrant.

Baldwin and his wife had an initial victory when
their
case came to trial later that year. A Placer County Superior Court jury
split 6-6 on the charges against Baldwin, and it deadlocked 7-5 in
favor
of acquitting his wife on the same charges. But the Placer County
District
Attorney's office decided to re-prosecute the Baldwins.

One of the medical marijuana patients who was
helping
Baldwin research Grant and Goodpaster's activities was Amy Breeze, a
Sacramento
resident who had been seriously disabled in a horrendous industrial
accident
years before. Breeze said in an interview with the SN&R that
smoking
marijuana had helped her to wean herself off an excessive regimen of
pain
killers prescribed by doctors. But Tracy Grant and the other members of
his narcotics unit didn't seem too interested in hearing about the
alleged
benefits of medical marijuana when they burst into Breeze's home on
Folsom
Boulevard early in the morning of Dec. 4, 1998, according to Breeze's
account
of the raid.

"I asked him not to handcuff me behind my back,"
said
Breeze. "He said, 'Don't give that disabled bullshit. We've seen you
walk.
If you keep claiming disability, things will get really bad for you'."

Deputies confiscated 55 marijuana plants and
arrested
Breeze and her fiancé for cultivation for sale of marijuana, a
felony.
In a civil suit filed against Grant on Dec. 6 in Sacramento County
Superior
Court, Breeze alleged "that defendant Grant committed a battery upon
her
person on Dec. 4, 1998, when in the course of arresting [Breeze], Grant
offensively struck, battered, pushed and shoved her in such a manner as
to constitute an unreasonable or excessive use of force in effectuating
[Breeze's] arrest." In April, the Sacramento County District Attorney's
Office dismissed charges against the 38-year-old Breeze for reasons of
"medical necessity."

The nonexistent cars

One of the two nonexistent cars that Tracy Grant
claimed
to have seen and that was used to justify his search was allegedly
parked
in Breeze's driveway, according to the affidavit signed by the
detective.
Grant listed the registration number for Breeze's expired disabled
person
parking placard as the license plate number for a vehicle he claimed to
have seen parked in Breeze's driveway. Grant said in the warrant that
he
drove to Breeze's house Nov. 12, 1998, and "observed two vehicles in
the
driveway to the residence." However, Breeze and her fiancé own
just
one vehicle, a car that is registered in his name, DMV records show.

Grant cited the plate number of the fiancé's
vehicle
as one of the two he spotted in the driveway. But he cited "K882335,"
the
number of Breeze's expired placard, as the license plate number for the
second vehicle he claimed to have spotted sitting in the driveway.
State
Department of Motor Vehicles records confirmed that Breeze's placard
could
never have been mistaken for the license plate of another vehicle.

The number [of the placard] "has nothing to do with
a
vehicle," said Nina Packnett, supervisor of DMV's commercial phone
unit.
"It's simply a disabled placard."

The nonexistent car in Breeze's driveway has become
an
issue in the civil suit Breeze filed against Grant. The detective
"presented
to a magistrate a false affidavit in support of the search warrant for
plaintiff's home," the suit alleges. The "affidavit contained
materially
false information which without its inclusion in the supporting
affidavit
the warrant would not have [been] issued," the lawsuit alleged. "Said
false
statements were made in conscious disregard for the truth and/or were
deliberately
made by Grant."

Grant alleged in a sworn affidavit to have seen yet
another
nonexistent vehicle in the driveway of another defendant. This one was
at the residence of Robert and Shawna Whiteaker, two more medical
marijuana
patients, who were raided by Grant's drug team sometime after they
shopped
for hydroponic growing supplies at Green Fire.

The detective said he drove to the Whiteaker
residence
on Sixth Street in Rio Linda on April 12 and "observed two vehicles in
the driveway to the residence." He cited DMV plate numbers that
correctly
belong to the couple's two cars. However, one of those vehicles, a
Dodge
Caravan with DMV license plate number 3JOK648, was broken down at the
time
and parked miles away in an auto transmission repair shop on Madison
Avenue
in North Highlands.

An owner of the auto repair shop asked to remain
anonymous
but confirmed for the SN&R that the Dodge in question was in the
shop
for repairs April 12, the day Grant claims he saw in the Whiteaker's
driveway
in Rio Linda. The SN&R also obtained copies of a towing receipt and
repair order receipt that backed up claims made by the auto repair shop
and the Whiteakers that Grant could not have possibly seen the car on
that
day.

Power usage and probable cause

Defendants in the Placer drug unit's raids also have
challenged
the two items that establish probable cause in most of the warrants
obtained
by Grant and Goodpaster. One is the finding of "fresh, green" marijuana
in the trash. The other is a comparison of the electrical power usage
of
suspects to the power usage of other homes in the same neighborhood, or
on the same street. If the comparison shows higher power usage by the
home
of the suspect, the detectives take that as a sign that residents are
using
energy-consuming lights to grow pot indoors.

In court records, a number of suspects have blasted
the
detectives' power comparisons as bogus, arguing that Grant and
Goodpaster
unfairly compared their electrical usage to that of smaller homes with
less square footage and purposely failed to take into account factors
such
as the existence of jacuzzis, swimming pools and other items that raise
power consumption.

Two defendants who made that allegation are Chris
and
Penny Miller of Citrus Heights and their San Francisco attorney,
Laurence
Jeffrey Lichter. "Detective Grant's allegation that Mr. and Mrs.
Miller's
power usage records revealed 'high power use' in comparison to 'other
like
residences' is unfounded and false," Lichter said in a declaration he
filed
in the Miller's court case.

Chris Miller is a medical marijuana patient who said
he
purchased equipment from Green Fire to grow his own marijuana. Grant
and
his team charged both with felony cultivation of marijuana in a raid on
his home. The prosecutors dropped charges against both of the Millers.
Chris Miller received the marijuana taken in the raid of his house back
from the Placer County Sheriff's Department after a court ordered them
to turn it over.

Ronald Reagan's old friend Sandy Sanborn also
blasted
the power comparisons that were done on his house in the affidavit
signed
by Goodpaster. "They claimed my power usage was four times higher than
surrounding homes," he said. "Some of the comparisons could have
nowhere
near approached my usage."

Fresh, green and still moist

A number of the defendants have accused Grant of
lying
about the "fresh, green" and "still moist" marijuana that he swore
under
oath to have unerringly found in the trash of nearly every one of the
defendants
who were raided by him. "His statements about the contents of my
garbage
are totally fabricated," said Breeze, who insisted that she never
placed
marijuana in her garbage even though she had been growing it for
medical
reasons.

Baldwin also accused Placer of "fabricating" the
marijuana
that Grant claimed to have found in his garbage. He told the SN&R
that
the Placer County Sheriff's Department showed him a little bag that
contained
only what appeared to be "ashes dumped out of a pipe" after he asked to
see the "fresh green" marijuana that Grant swore under oath to have
found
in his garbage.

Miller was shown a bag containing what appeared to
be
one small marijuana stem after he visited the Placer County Sheriff's
Department
with his attorney and asked to see the "marijuana stems recently cut
from
a mature marijuana plant" that Grant swore under oath to have found in
his garbage. Lichter, his attorney, gave this account of the incident
in
a declaration he filed in court papers: "An evidence viewing revealed
merely
a brittle, light-colored twig, the length of [a] pen and half a pen's
width.
This twig lacked any of the characteristics normally associated with
marijuana
stems from recently cut plants. ... Even more important is the fact
that
Mr. Miller does not place stems in the trash, but uses a compost pile
to
discard the small portions of the plant that he does not use."

Miller and his wife filed a claim with Placer County
Sept.
10 alleging that Grant's marijuana eradication team "illegally executed
a search warrant that was based on an affidavit which was insufficient
on its face, and was based on illegally gathered and falsified
information."
The Millers said they also are planning to file civil litigation
against
Grant and Placer County.

Robert Dearkland, another medical marijuana patient
whose
case got dropped by the Sacramento County District Attorney's office,
told
the SN&R that detective Grant had to be lying about the marijuana
allegedly
found by Grant in his trash because it would have been impossible for
the
detective to know with any certainty which trash can belonged to his
Fair
Oaks residence.

Grant's drug team actually obtained its search
warrant
for a residence that was occupied by his two teenage children and his
wife,
whom Dearkland had separated from. The cops were unaware that Dearkland
was living in a converted structure that is located behind the home
where
the rest of his family now resides, police records indicate. The Placer
detectives claimed to have found marijuana in the trash of the house
where
Dearkland's wife and his kids live. But Dearkland told SN&R in a
tape-recorded
interview that the trash can that belonged to his wife's residence
actually
gets placed out for collection each week in front of yet a third house
that is occupied by Dearkland's grown stepson. The three cans from the
homes of the three Dearkland residences are placed out together each
week
in a mixed group in front of the stepson's home. So, if Grant would
have
tried to search Dearkland's trash, he would have never had a way of
knowing
with any certainty which of the three cans belonged to which of the
three
households, according to Dearkland.

After Grant realized that Dearkland lived in the
converted
structure behind his wife's home, he searched it, too, and found 13
marijuana
plants that Dearkland was growing for his medical needs under the
provisions
of Prop 215, according to court records and police reports in the case.
Dearkland showed the detective a copy of a recommendation for medical
marijuana
that he had obtained from a physician. Four months later, Dearkland was
arrested by a criminal investigator of the Sacramento County District
Attorney's
office and charged with felony cultivation and sale of marijuana. After
a further review of the case, the district attorney's office dismissed
the charges, citing insufficient evidence to obtain a conviction. Like
Citrus Heights medical marijuana patient Chris Miller, Dearkland was
then
able to obtain a court order forcing the Placer County Sheriff's
Department
to return the marijuana they had taken earlier in the raid.

Since Dearkland's case was dropped, he has joined
his
wife and two teenage children in filing a civil suit in U.S. District
Court
in Sacramento accusing Grant, Goodpaster and two other Placer County
deputies
of violations of constitutional rights and infliction of emotional
distress
due to the raid. Both Grant and Goodpaster have filed declarations in
the
case denying they did anything wrong or improper in the way they
handled
the raid on the Dearklands.

The deep dark secret

Some criminal defense attorneys who specialize in
drug
cases said the allegations of perjury on sworn affidavits that have
surfaced
in the cases involving Grant and Goodpaster have become almost
commonplace
within the criminal justice system.

"It's the real deep dark secret of the war on
drugs,"
said Steinborn, the Seattle attorney who advises NORML. "Perjury has
become
commonplace on search warrants. It's the currency of search warrants,
and
the courts tolerate it. It's been that way for 20 years."

A number of attorneys were also skeptical that the
allegedly
wayward detectives will be held accountable for their actions.

Farina, the Sacramento attorney who represented two
of
the Placer cases, said: "It's perjury. Should the cop be prosecuted?
Yes,
but he probably won't be. Should the cop be fired? Yes, but he probably
won't be. If the public outrage is not there, nothing is going to
happen."

Attorneys involved in the case and other law
enforcement
experts gave a number of reasons to explain the motives for the
allegedly
illegal behavior of Grant and Goodpaster. But they basically attributed
the cops' actions to two things: attitude and money.

"They hate marijuana and see it as a dangerous drug,
and
it's pork barrel for their agency," said Lichter.

"Most peace officers love clandestine operations,"
said
James McEntee, a former deputy district attorney with Solano County who
is now a Vallejo-based criminal defense attorney. "Clandestine
operations-whether
it is working a snitch or spying on citizens-remind the officer of the
military, and most officers have warm memories of their military
service.
Clandestine operations are more exciting than routine patrol: everyone
loves to share secrets. A few officers genuinely believe that smoking
marijuana
indicates a grave social pathology."

"Different jurisdictions have different values,
politics
and priorities. Possession of a couple of marijuana plants would be
small
potatoes in a place like Vallejo, but it might be a big deal in
Roseville.
But the main reason law enforcement goes in for task forces, code names
and clandestine operations is financial. For example, the state offers
district attorneys grant money to fund special units for the
prosecution
of sexual assault, drugs, domestic violence, prison crimes and underage
sex. This cash stream allows the elected district attorney to hire more
staff, enlarge his power and balance his budget. The grant money
becomes
addicting, and to continue receiving it, the DA must justify how he
spends
it. If he has a grant to fund a drug prosecution 'task force,' he knows
he must prosecute a certain number of drug cases or lose his funding.
The
fact that he is going after marijuana indicates that there isn't much
to
do in Placer County."

Whether McEntee's speculation on motivation is
correct
or not,, some drug experts believe Placer's narcotics unit is
performing
an important service to the community. "They do a good job and have had
some very significant grow cases, and basically we appreciate the help
they provide," said Dale Kitching, supervising deputy district attorney
of the Sacramento County District Attorney's office's major narcotics
unit.
"Those are cases that we might not otherwise learn about or have the
time
to pursue."

Placer County Sheriff's Department received $206,000
in
special funding from the state Office of Criminal Justice Planning to
finance
its marijuana operations in the current fiscal year, according to an
article
in the Auburn Journal. The grant provides funding for one deputy
sheriff,
overtime for five more deputies and a sergeant, and a 15 percent
portion
of costs for a deputy district attorney.

"I thought I was dreaming"

While Placer County's Special Operations Unit is out
looking
for more illegal marijuana gardens, the county's legal advisers will be
responding to a growing number of lawsuits that are being planned over
its past raids. Sanborn is one of four raided by the special unit who
met
with Santa Cruz attorney Kate Wells a week ago to discuss potential
litigation
over an issue that is hard for his family to forget.

The police raid has taken a toll on the Sanborn
family
household, especially for Lyman "Sandy" Sanborn's grown granddaughter
and
their three great-grandchildren. One of the youngest is now afraid of
uniformed
police officers, according to the Sanborn family. "Every time she sees
an officer, she's afraid," said Sanborn. His granddaughter "was so
emotionally
distraught that she was unable to stay in the area and has left, taking
with her the three great-grandchildren," said Sanborn in his $1 million
claim filed with Placer County.

His wife, Grace, is still haunted by the memory of
the
incident, too. "They took one of our doors down and busted it all to
pieces,"
she said. "It could have been unbolted. There wasn't any reason. They
said
that someone in this area was growing marijuana. Of course, we're not
that
kind of family. I was sound asleep and somebody came in and yelled,
"search!"
It woke me up. I thought my husband was teasing me. When I woke up in
my
bedroom, there was a stranger yelling, 'Get out of bed and get over
here.'
I thought I was dreaming. It was just something you can never forget
the
way they treated us. It makes me want to cry.